SEAN SIMMERS/The Patriot-NewsBeaver Stadium during a White Out is louder than a Who concertHome field advantage is real. NFL teams will do everything they can to get playoff games at home.

Anyone who has attended a "White Out" at Penn State knows the effect that a crowd can have. You can feel the sound. It's like going to a Who concert and standing right in front of the speakers. Trust me; The Who sets their speakers higher than "11".

You would think that a conference would try and achieve balance in all things. This would be to give everyone a fair chance of competing for a championship.

Starting your season at home is a big advantage. It gives you an opportunity to build confidence and momentum. It does not matter where you go on the road in the Big Ten.

Nearly every team has a home field advantage. They have crowds that support their team and make noise. Then you have all the things associated with travel itself, plane flights, hotel rooms, etc. Add a couple of starting freshman to the equation and you can see how much more difficult this is for a team.

The 2005 Big Ten opener at Northwestern comes to mind right away. A very special season for Penn State was almost derailed on the road by a team that went 7-5 that year. It took a miracle fourth down conversion for a Penn State team that would go 11-1 and finish ranked No. 3 in the nation to win on the road in their Big Ten opener.

A recent post by Steve Smith in his blog got me thinking about home openers so I thought I would do some digging. In his post Steve points out that the Fightin' Sweatervests have opened the Big Ten season at home 12 of the last 14 years. He believes that this indicates clear bias towards the Fightin' Sweatervests by the Big Ten.

I don't know about you, but I've always thought of the Big Ten as favoring the Big Two. That would be both Michigan and the Fightin' Sweatervests. So I went and pulled some quick data on this particular topic. I decided to look at the home openers for the last 4 Big Ten Champions (or co-champions as idiotic as that is). The last 4 Big Ten Champions are Penn State (2005 & 08), Ohio State (2005, 06, 07, & 08), Michigan (2004), and Iowa (2004).

Here's how this breaks down.

Penn State has or will open at home in 2008 and 2009. They opened on the road in 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004. That's 2 Home and 4 Road openers.

Iowa opened at home in 2008. They have or will open on the road in 2009, 2007, 2006, 2005, and 2004. That's 1 Home and 5 Road openers.

The Fightin' Sweatervests has or will open at home in 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, and 2005. They opened on the road in 2004. That's 5 Home and 1 Road openers.

Michigan has or will open at home in 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, and 2004. They opened on the road in 2005. That's 5 Home and 1 Road openers.

It sure looks like two Big Ten teams have gotten an advantage over the last few years. I don't know how something like this gets fixed other than by pointing it out. With college football schedules being set so far in advance, even if the Big Ten were to start to even this up, it is going to take years.

Certainly the Fightin' Sweatervests and Wolverines are given every chance to succeed by the league. That just makes it all the sweeter when the Lions take them down.